Episode 54: The End

And now… the time is near…

Everything we’ve ever done, everything we’ve ever recorded, it all leads up to this. To this singular podcast episode, this 2 hour epic. We’ve compiled over a dozen of our fan submissions for our fantasy Blake’s 7 episode, and have now presented them all here, for the first time. We hope you enjoy this roaring, exciting, nail biting finale to Zenith, and we’d like to extend a very happy thank you to everybody who ever listened in!

Show-notes:

1:29Trust Your Doctor is our other podcast. We’ve been watching Doctor Who for 5 years now.2:37 Links to all the other Blake’s 7 podcasts that we currently know of: Shake and Blake, Down and Safe, Space Fall, Classically Awful, Blake’s 7 in Character, Adventures with the Wife and Blake (looks like the site’s down right now), Watching Blake’s 7, Making Blake’s 7, Blake’s 7 Online. Might as well throw a couple more in for the heck of it: The Blake’s 7 Diaries, Blake every Seven Days, The Way Back 7 (B7-themed blog).6:05Afterlife by Tony Attwood14:07Triple Play is our other other podcast where we discuss movie trilogies.36:55@farshnuke: My Blakes 7 dream would be Laurence Fishburne as Blake, Madds Mikkleson as Avon, Hugh Dancy as Villa, Karen Gillian as Cally, Caroline Dhavernas as Jenna, Gillian Anderson as Servalan and Paul Bettany as Zen/Orac. Basically Hannibal in space with Amy Pond. I need it38:58 David: As to a fantasy reimaging of Blake’s 7 that is a tough one.
I think I would have the following actors for these roles:
Sevalan would be played by Morena Baccarin who played Anna in the 2009 version of V. She would be perfect as a villain.
Avon played by Philip Glenister. He played Gene Hunt in Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. Though he may be a bit too old for the role now.
Vila would be played by Martin Freeman who played Arthur Dent in the movie version of the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Cally played by Keeley Hawes from the series Ashes to Ashes.
I can’t think of who I would want to play Blake, Jenna, Gan and Travis though.
Gan played by Adrian Rawlins
Blake played by Benedict Cumberbatch
Will have to think about who I would want the other roles played by.40:30Ashes to Ashes is a followup to Life on Mars.41:47 If you somehow didn’t already know, Sherlock, The Imitation Game, Doctor Strange, and Frankenstein are shows/movies/plays that Benedict Cumberbatch is in.42:46@50dw50: Fantasy Blake’s 7- a one off special to mark the anniversary of the show following a brave group of Federation offers who have to deal with the horrific aftermath of the atrocities committed by an almost mythical terrorist group led by Blake…45:35@redtwitdown: I’m working on a longer one, but here’s a simple one to fit in a tweet: Orac is the only surviving crew member. He gets his own spin-off series. Like the K9 one, but.. Darker.47:21 St. Clinton’s recording can be found here.55:25 Hal Morrison: Blake’s 7: a twelve episode miniseries by show runner Ronald D. Moore for STARZ.
Cast:
Arthur Darvill as Blake
Ruth Wilson as Avon
Michelle Ryan as Jenna
Gemma Arterton as Cally
Samuel Anderson as Vila
Aaron Douglas as Gan
Tricia Helfer as Servalan
Katee Sackhoff as Travis
Visual Effects Supervisor – Doug Drexler57:09Broadchurch is another show that Arthur Darvill is in. Josette Simon also has a role in it.59:20 Argy’s recording can be found here.1:11:08 Jurgen’s story can be found here.1:25:05@iomamo: A continuation of the series, definitely not a reboot. The name Blake’s 7 still applies because this new group is following the lead of/doing it in tribute to the original gang and Blake himself. Either way, the myth is more important than the man.
And/or something like Robin of Sherwood where a person is appointed the New Blake. Or perhaps this new revolutionary has the arrogance to name themselves Blake? I dunno. Anything but a reboot anyway.1:28:16@tech_paula: I always had the idea that after the end of “Blake” when only Avon was left, Servalan would step out. Avon and her would smile and walk off together. And that Avon had been working as a “double agent” all the time. Then he would continue to support the rebels whilst being federat1:30:25 Sgt. Draino:

Hey guys,

So, if I had MAXIMUM POWER, what might I do in terms of conjuring another season of Blakes 7 into existence?

EXTERIOR. SPACE. EARLY INTO SERIES C (aka Season 3). NOT LONG AFTER “POWERPLAY.”

The Liberator is being pursued by a massive fleet of pursuit ships closing in from all sides. The only route of escape is to travel through a region of space that Zen has on record as being too dangerous. They override him, and fly through anyway. They pass through an anomaly, and emerge in the clear, no pursuit ships on the scopes.

The crew lick their wounds, The Liberator repairs itself. Once full power is restored, Avon is determined to hit back at the Federation, to go on the offensive. He has Orac scan for the nearest Federation outpost. His plan is to attack and destroy it, in order to bait a Federation ship to investigate. Avon hypothesizes that The Liberator has no problem taking on one Federation ship at a time, and so that’s what they will do: Take on single ships, destroy them individually, hit-and-fade.

The Liberator arrives at the outpost, and attacks it, blasting it from orbit. Avon let’s them get off a distress signal, and then completely destroys them. The Liberator then lies in wait.

Eventually a Federation ship shows up. It is a configuration the crew has never seen before, but after scanning, Orac confirms its transponder identifies it as a Federation ship. It’s an unusual shape, with two elongated nacelles, and a disc-shaped section on the front. Hidden behind a moon, The Liberator monitors communications, as a Federation officer calling himself “Captain Picard” identifies his ship as the “Enterprise,” and tries to communicate with the outpost. The Liberator strikes from behind, moving much more quickly than the Federation ship, firing its neutron blasters. The ship appears to have some kind of rudimentary force wall, but the neutron blasters quickly penetrate it, punch straight through the ship, and ultimately destroy it before it can ever get off a shot.

The crew is delighted with the result. Avon theorizes that this new ship design must be something the Federation is trying to build their fleet numbers back up with, after the massive losses they took during the war with the Andromedans. They decide to press their advantage. They destroy several more outposts, using Orac to monitor fleet movements. Orac indicates the Federation’s computer network must have been severely compromised during the war, as Orac finds their systems much easier to penetrate and influence than previously.

Orac discovers that the Federation has amassed a fleet to hunt the Liberator, and the fleet is being personally led by Servalan, who is now calling herself, “Fleet Admiral Servalan.” Orac has found a “backdoor” into the enemy ships’ computer systems, and says it is able to control most aspects of the ships remotely. Avon and the crew decide to take this fleet on, with their new-found advantage. They face down the fleet. Admiral Servalan demands their surrender, and Orac responds by causing all of the Starfleet vessels to turn and collide with one another, causing death on a massive scale. The fleet is destroyed, and Admiral Servalan is taken captive. The Liberator then heads towards Earth, ready to strike at the very heart of the Federation.

Avon and the rest of the crew continue to have many more adventures attacking and destroying the Federation, showing those cruel tyrants no mercy. Specifically they prolly have about 10 more adventures, each one bloodier than the last. Eventually they encounter an extra super-duper prototype Federation starship commanded by Captain Travis, and Avon and Orac finally realize that they are in a parallel universe. They take The Liberator back through the anomaly to their home universe, leaving a huge swath of destruction behind them.

The End.

1:34:44 Baz:

Part One.
Fantasy Season E – Version a: 40yrs Later…
Fulfilling Avon’s last command before his death on Guada Prime and working from a hidden location, the supercomputer Orac has been manipulating computer systems all over the Federation over the years and has finally completed the construction of a new Liberator at a secret location. All it needs is a crew…
From this point there are several ways we could go in order to cry the new Liberator… I’m quite fond of the idea that Orac has selected a group he believes will be best suited to fight the Federation Orac hasn’t been quite perfect in his selection and we get conflicts between the crew similar to before.
Over the course of the season we would see the crew making their way to the Liberator, recovering Orac from Guada Prime and then taking the fight to a now, very powerful Federation (partly funded thanks to Servalan’s victory in Gold).
I have a synopsis of a Season E continuation, but i’ve misplaced my work. It had everyone surviving from GP (except Dayna, who was shot with a different weapon to everyone else). They were stunned and captured and had to escape and take the fight back to the Federation. Avon had Orac construct a new Liberator (similar to the 40 yr Later version) and we had a new crew member (can’t remember what I had now).

Part Three
Reboot
I have a host of notes I’ve made over the years regarding what I would do with a reboot. Too much to go into at such short notice. One thing I did have was that Cally has 7 clones, one of which would be the agent who betrays Blake at the start (Dev Tarrant in the original). Lots more Administration intregue. Gan turns into what he should have been – a brutal killer with a limiter to stop it. Jenna more Han Solo like and Cally a kick ass combat machine.

8 comments

Well done, Saint Clinton. Dayna president of the Federation, brilliant! And the other main character of my story, Soolin, didn’t do too badly either. Classy tough Jenna is of course still alive!
Thanks for reading out my story in your dramatic dulcet tones, Kiyan. I submitted a slighter revised shorter version to a different website. Hopefully they’ll publish it.
Really like your series E, Dylan. Nice how you’re giving Dayna and Soolin so much to do. ❤ Wish Big Finish would produce it. Interesting outline, Kiyan.
Thank you for the podcast, guys!

It should have said *slightly*. 🙂 I really appreciate you putting all the hard work in. It paid off. No need for the self deprecatory remarks, Dylan 🙂 (I also identify with Tarrant btw, but am quite complex and would say I share character traits with Soolin, Dayna, Cally, Avon, Gan and Vila as well, even Servalan (her sexuality). You seem like a talented clever guy and so does Kiyon, my fellow linguist. Do you go back to SA at all?
I included a reference to Who in my short story. Was wondering whether you realized. The all-female planet populated by clones is from that universe (Galaxy Four)!
Take care!

Well all. it has been a few weeks since the show ended. I am still going through withdraws over it. I should be getting out of the Zenith Rehab in a few months… lol… I hope that you all enjoyed my updates on the characters. I’ve been thinking about creating and doing a Blake’s 7 podcast myself now, but it will be reading Blake’s 7 fanfiction that I find on the internet. If I do it, it will be a in a few months.
I hope to catch you all on other podcasts.

FYI, this episode isn’t linked in the episode index. I just finished a re-listen of the rest of the show and realized I’d never heard this very last episode. I didn’t even realize it had been released (possibly because it also doesn’t appear to have been uploaded to YouTube).

On the plus, side I get to listen to a brand new (to me) episode of Zenith. Monday’s looking up.